Caterpillar says health reform costs their shareholders $100M over 10 years. This is FUD, since the predominant trend has pushed health care costs into wage reductions. Investors will rally the stock when the company says the cost will become their employees cost.
The fear: US based companies may become less efficient compared to other business environments. Higher employee costs could translate into further outsourcing, or worse, complete US corporation entities being reborn overseas to avoid the US business climate. (e.g. Seagate closed shop in the Cayman Islands and moved back to Ireland, potentially due to closing US offshore accounting loopholes.) As more US corporations move overseas, expect US Tax receivables to plummet.
Hourly pay will remain the same, but employees may walk away with a smaller weekly paycheck.
The fear: How does the working, employed class foster economic growth, if more of their paycheck gets stuffed into health insurance coverage?
The uninsurable will be insurable, and be able to move between insurance providers. The potential deaths prevented will create additional tax payers, to offset the program costs. Hospitals won't need charity or Pro Bono work, since everyone will have health insurance. Then again, hospitals charge 2-4x over typical cost for uninsured folks, because often they cannot reclaim the losses, so hospital losses should shrink. However, any "profit" they were gaining on writing off the losses will go away. So the hospitals with the most write-offs will come under the most fundamental scrutiny from investors.
The deal is getting sweeter for being unemployed, while employers are pressured again to cut costs, cut benefits, or push costs onto employees.
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